Sometimes you just have a strong desire to just eat “bad” food. “Bad” as in not-that-great-for-you food. Well, that hankering happened for me over the weekend. I was in the mood for macaroni and cheese. It had been months since the last time I had a good, baked mac & cheese. Luckily for me this desire also came with the ability to make another Pioneer Woman recipe. This recipe also came from my favorite cookbook of hers: Recipes From an Accidental Country Girl, her first one.

For this recipe, I pretty much followed the instructions and ingredients as listed. Unlike some other macaroni and cheese recipes I’ve come across (and made), this recipe calls for a single type of cheese: cheddar. While Ree calls for a basic cheddar cheese (she doesn’t specify white or yellow), I opted to use an aged one: Cabot 3-year aged white cheddar. This cheese added a wonderfully salty flavor that hasn’t been replicated by any other cheese I’ve used in the past for macaroni and cheese.

One of the things I liked about this recipe was its simplicity. No fancy ingredients needed! Just milk, butter, flour, ground mustard, salt, pepper, cheese, and pasta! Also, this recipe is eat-out-the-pot approved, meaning you don’t need to bake it.

But…we did bake it…for about 30 minutes and that allowed the breadcrumbs on top (a deviation from the recipe, but a request from my friend) to brown beautifully and add even more flavor and texture to the dish. This is definitely one I will keep in the back of my head when I feel a carb-craving coming on.